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P L^3 [L A [Q) E [L F [K] D A 



THE 



POETICAL WORKS 



OF 



THOMAS GRAY. 



\ « 



ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED. 




PHILADELPHIA : 
PUBLISHED BY E. H. BUTLER & CO. 

1858. 



.A 






zLii 



CONTENTS. 



PAGH 

Ode on Spring ...... 9 

On the Death of a favoubite Cat . . . 11 

On a distant Prospect of Eton College . .13 

To Adyersity ..... 18 

The Progress of Poesy . . . . .20 

The Bard . . . . . . 26 

Ode for Music . . . . . .32 

The Fatal Sisters . . . ■ . . 37 

The Vegtam's Kivitha ; or, the Descent of Odin . 40 

The Triumphs of Owen ... . . 45 

The Death of Hoel . . . . .47 

v^ (5) 



vi CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Sonnet on the Death of Mr. West . . 49 

Efitaph on Mrs. Clerke . . . .50 

Epitaph on Sir William Williams . . 51 

Elegy written in a Country Churchyard . . 52 
Translation from Statius . . . . 59 

Song . . . . . . . 61 

A Long Story . ... . . 62 

Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude . 69 
Agrippina : an unfinished Tragedy . * . 73 

Hymn to Ignorance . . . . .82 

The Alliance of Education and Goyernment . 84 

Stanzas to Mr. Bentley . . . .89 

Sketch of his own Character . , . 90 

Lines . . . . . . . , 91 

TOPHET ...... 92 

The Candidate ...... 92 

Impromptu . ,' , , . . 94 

• 

Impromptu ...... 95 

Part of an Epitaph on the Wife of Mason . 95 



CONTENTS. vii 

PAGE 

Extempore Epitaph on Anne, Countess of Dorset . 96 

The Characters of the Cpirist-Cross Row . 96 

Imitations from Propertius .... 100 

Imitated from Tasso, Gerus. Lib. . . . 106 

De Principiis Cogitandi .... 110 

A Farewell to Florence . . . . 120 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



'' PORTRAIT OF GRAY JONES, R. A. ... Frontispiece 

THE COUNTKT CHUECHTAIID BCHMOLZE Title 

/'''the BARB BCHMOLZE 26 

*^ THE CURFEW TOLLS THE KNELL OF PARTING DAT . SCHMOLZE 52 

V THE BOAST OF HERAIJ)RT, THE POMP OF POWER . SCHMOLZE 53 



THE 



POETICAL WORKS 



OP 



THOMAS GRAY. 



ODE I. 
ON THE SPRING. 

Lo ! where the rosj-bosom'd Hours, 

Fair Yenus' train, appear. 
Disclose the long-expecting flowers. 

And wake the purple year ! 
The Attic warbler pours her throat. 
Responsive to the cuckoo's note. 

The untaught harmony of spring : 
While, whispering pleasure as they fly, 
Cool Zephyrs through the clear blue sky 

Their gather'd fragrance fling. 

Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch 
A broader, browner shade, 

(9) 



10 GEAY^S POETICAL WORKS. 

Where'er tlie rude and moss-grown beech 

O'er-canopies the glade, 
Beside some water's rushy brink 
With me the muse shall sit, and think 

(At ease reclined in rustic state) 
How vain the ardour of the crowd, 
How low, how little are the proud, 

How indigent the great ! 

Still is the toiling hand of Care ; 

The panting herds repose : 
Yet hark, how through the peopled air 

The busy murmur glows ! 
The insect-youth are on the wing, 
Eager to taste the honey'd spring. 

And float amid the liquid noon : 
Some lightly o'er the current skim. 
Some show their gayly-gilded trim 

Quick-glancing to the sun. 

To Contemplation's sober eye 

Such is the race of Man; 
And they that creep, and they that fly, 

Shall end where they began. 
Alike the Busy and the Gay 
But flutter through life's little day. 

In Fortune's varying colours drest : 



POEMS. 11 

Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance, 
Or chill'd by Age, their airy dance 
They leave, in dust to rest. 

Methinks I hear, in accents low. 

The sportive kind reply : 
Poor moralist ! and what art thou ? 

A solitary fly ! 
Thy joys no glittering female meets, 
No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets, 

No painted plumage to display : 
On hasty wings thy youth is flown ; 
Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone — 

We frolic while 'tis May. 



ODE II. 
ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT. 

DROWNED IN A TUB OF GOLD FISHES. 

'TwAS on a lofty vase's side. 
Where China's gayest art had dyed 

The azure flowers tha,t blow ; 
Demurest of the tabbv kind, 
The pensive Selima, reclined. 

Gazed on the lake below. 



12 GEAYS POETICAL WORKS. 

Her conscious tail her joj declared ; 
The fair round face, the snowy beard, 

The velvet of her paws. 
Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, 
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes. 

She saw ; and purr'd applause. 

Still had she gazed ; but midst the tide 
Two angel forms were seen to glide. 

The Genii of the stream : 
Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue 
Through richest purple to the view 

Betray'd a golden gleam. 

The hapless nymph with wonder saw : 
A whisker first, and then a claw. 

With many an ardent wish. 
She stretch'd, in vain, to reach the prize. 
What female heart can gold despise ? , 

What Cat's averse to fish ? 

Presumptuous maid ! with looks intent 
Again she stretch'd, again she bent, 

Nor knew the gulf between. 
(Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled,) 
The slippery verge her feet beguiled, 

She tumbled headlong in. 



POEMS. 13 

Eight times emerging from the flood, 
She mew'd to every watery God, 

Some speedy aid to send. 
No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd: 
Nor cruel Tom nor Susan heard. 

A favourite has no friend ! 

From hence, ye beauties, undeceived. 
Know, one false step is ne'er retrieved. 

And be with caution bold. 
Not all that tempts your w^andering eyes 
And heedless hearts is lawful prize ; 

Nor all, that glisters, gold. 



ODE III. 
ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 

AvOpconog, iKavf] 7rp6(pa(Tis el; to Svarvxeif. 

Menander. 

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers. 

That crown the watery glade, 
Where grateful Science still adores 

Her Henry's holy shade ; 



14 gray's poetical works. 

And ye, that from the stately brow 

Of Windsor's heights the expanse below 

Of grove, of laAvn, of mead survey, 
Whose tm^f, whose shade, whose flowers among 
Wanders the hoary Thames along 

His silver winding way : 

Ah, happy hills ! ah, pleasing shade ! 

Ah, fields beloved in vain ! — 
Where once my careless childhood stray' d, 

A stranger yet to pain ! 
I feel the gales that from ye blow 
A momentary bliss bestow. 

As, waving fresh their gladsome wing. 
My weary soul they seem to soothe. 
And redolent of joy and youth. 

To breathe a second spring. 

Say, father Thames, (for thou hast seen 

Full many a sprightly race. 
Disporting on thy margent green. 

The paths of pleasure trace,) 
Who foremost now delight to cleave, 
With pliant arm, thy glassy wave ? 

The captive linnet which enthral ? 
What idle progeny succeed 
To chase the rolling circle's speed, 

Or urge the flying ball ? 



POEMS. 15 

While some on earnest business bent 

Their murmuring labours ply 
'Gainst graver hours that bring constraint 

To sweeten liberty : 
Some bold adventurers disdain 
The limits of their little reign, 

And unknown regions dare descry : 
Still as they run they look behind, 
They hear a voice in every wind, 

And snatch a fearful joy. 

Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed. 

Less pleasing when possest ; 
The tear forgot as soon as shed, 

The sunshine of the breast : 
Theirs buxom health, of rosy hue, 
Wild wit, invention ever new. 

And lively cheer, of vigour born ; 
The thoughtless day, the easy night, 
The spirits pure, the slumbers light. 

That fly the approach of morn. 

Alas ! regardless of their doom 

The little victims play ! 
No sense have they of ills to come. 

Nor care beyond to-day : 
Yet see, how all around them wait 



16 GRAYS POETICAL WORKS. 

The ministers of liuman fate, 

And black Misfortune's baleful train ! 
Ah, show them where in ambush stand, 
To seize their prej, the murderous band ! 
Ah, tell them, they are men ! 

These shall the fury Passions tear, 

The vultures of the mind. 
Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear, 

And Shame that skulks behind ; 
Or pining Love shall waste their youth. 
Or Jealousy, with rankling tooth. 

That inly gnaws the secret heart ; 
And Envy wan, and faded Care, 
Grim-visaged comfortless Despair, 

And Sorrow's piercing dart. 

Ambition this shall tempt to rise. 

Then whirl the wretch from high. 
To bitter Scorn a sacrifice. 

And grinning Infamy. 
The stings of Falsehood those shall try. 
And hard IJnkindness' alter'd eye. 

That mocks the tear it forced to flow ; 
And keen Remorse with blood defiled. 
And moody Madness laughing wild 

Amid severest woe. 



POEMS. 17 

Lo ! in the vale c^ years beneath 

A grisly troop are seen, 
The painful family of Death, 

More hideous than their queen : 
This racks the joints, this fires the veins, 
That every labouring sinew strains. 

Those in the deeper vitals rage : 
Lo ! Poverty, to fill the band, 
That numbs the soul with icy hand. 

And slow-consuming Age. 

To each his sufi"erings : all are men, 

Condemn'd alike to groan ; 
The tender for another's pain. 

The unfeeling for his own. 
Yet, ah ! why should they know their fate ? 
Since sorrow never comes too late, 

.And happiness too swiftly flies. 
Thought would destroy their paradise. 
No more ! where ignorance is bliss, 

'Tis folly to be wise ! 



2^ 



18 Gil AY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

ODE IV.' 

TO ADVERSITY. 

— Zrjva — 



Tdv (ppovEiv Bporovf dScH- 
aavra, tu) nadsi jxadibT 
Qtvra Kvpicog eX^^v. 

Mscn. Agam. ver. 181. 

Daughter of Jove, relentless power, 
Thou tamer of the human breast, 

Whose iron scourge and torturing hour 
The bad affright, afflict the best ! 

Bound in thine adamantine chain. 

The proud are taught to taste of pain. 

And purple tyrants vainly groan 
With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone. 

When first thy sire to send on earth 
Virtue, his darling child, design'd, 
To thee he gave the heavenly birth, 

And bade to form her infant mind. 
Stern rugged nurse ! thy rigid lore 
With patience many a year she bore : 
What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, 
And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe. 

Scared at thy frown terrific, fly 
Self-pleasing Folly's idle brood, 



POEMS. 19 

Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy, 

And leave us leisure to be good. 
Light they disperse, and with them go 
The summer friend, the flattering foe ; 
By vain Prosperity received. 
To her they vow their truth, and are again believed. 

Wisdom in sable garb array' d. 

Immersed in rapturous thought profound, 
And Melancholy, silent maid. 

With leaden eye that loves the ground. 
Still on thy solemn steps attend : 
Warm Charity, the general friend, 
With Justice, to herself severe. 
And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear. 

Oh ! gently on thy suppliant's head. 

Dread Goddess, lay thy chastening hand ! 
Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad. 

Nor circled with the vengeful band 
(As by the impious thou art seen). 
With thundering voice, and threatening mien, 
With screaming Horror's funeral cry. 
Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty : 

Thy form benign, oh Goddess, wear, 
Thy milder influence impart, 



20 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

Thy philosophic train be there 

To soften, not to wound, my heart. 
The generous spark extinct revive, 
Teach me to love, and to forgive, 
Exact my own defects to scan, 
What others are to feel, and know myself a Man. 



ODE V. 
THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 

Pindaric. 

^oyvavra avvtroXaiv ig 
As TO wav hpi.ir}vi(x)v 
'K.aTilei. 

Pindar. Ol. ii. v. 152. 

, I. 1. 

Awake, ^olian lyre, awake. 
And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. 
From Helicon's harmonious springs 

A thousand rills their mazy progress take : 
The laughing flowers that round them blow, 
Drink life and fragrance as they flow. 
Now the rich stream of music winds along. 
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong. 



THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 21 

Through verdant dales, and Ceres' golden reign : 

Now rolling down the steep amain, 

Headlong, impetuous, see it pour : 

The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. 

I. 2. 

Oh ! Sovereign of the willing soul. 
Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, 
Enchanting shell ! the sullen Cares, 

And frantic Passions hear thy soft control. 
On Thracia's hills the Lord of War 
Has curb'd the fury of his car. 
And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command. 
Perching on the scepter'd hand 
Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king 
With ruffled plumes and flagging wing : 
Quench' d in dark clouds of slumber lie 
The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. 

I. 3. 

Thee the voice, the dance, obey. 
Temper 'd to thy warbled lay. 
O'er Idalia's velvet-green 
The rosy-crowned Loves are seen 
On Cytherea's day : 



22 GKAY'S poetical WORKS. 

With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures, 
Frisking light in frolic measures ; 
Now pursuing, now retreating, 

Kow in circling troops tliey meet ; 
To brisk notes in cadence beating 

Glance their manj-twinkling feet. 
Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare : 

Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay. 
With arms sublime, that float upon the air, 

In gliding state she wins h«r easy way : 
O'er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move 
The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love. 

II. 1. 

Man's feeble race what ills await ! 
Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain, 
Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train. 

And Death, sad refuge from the storms of fate ! 
The fond complaint, my song, disprove, 
And justify the laws of Jove. 
Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse ? 
Night and all her sickly dews, 
Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, 
He gives to range the dreary sky : 
Till down the eastern cliffs afar 
Hyperion's march they spy, and glittering shafts of 
war. 



THE PEOORESS OF POESY. 23 

II. 2. 

In climes beyond the solar road, 
Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, 
The muse has broke the twilight gloom 

To cheer the shivering native's dull abode. 
And oft, beneath the odorous shade 
Of Chili's boundless forests laid. 
She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat, 
In loose numbers wildly sweet. 
Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves. 
Her track, where'er the goddess roves, 
Glory pursue, and generous Shame, 
The unconquerable Mind, and freedom's holy flame. 

IL 3. 

Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep. 
Isles, that crown the ^gean deep, 

Fields, that cool Ilissus laves. 

Or where Maeander's amber waves 
In lingering labyrinths creep. 

How do your tuneful echoes languish. 

Mute, but to the voice of anguish ! 
Where each old poetic mountain 

Inspiration breathed around ; 
Every shade and hallow' d fountain 

Murmur'd deep a solemn sound : 



24 gray's poetical WORKS. 

Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour, 
Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains. 

Alike thej scorn the pomp of tyrant Power, 
And coward Vice, that revels in her chains. 

When Latium had her lofty spirit lost, 

They sought, oh Albion ! next thy sea-encircled coast. 

III. 1. 

Far from the sun and summer gale, 
In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid, 
What time, Avhere lucid Avon stray 'd, 

To him the mighty mother did unveil 
Her awful face : the dauntless child 
Stretch'd forth his little arms and smiled. 
^' This pencil take, (she said,) whose colours clear 
Richly paint the vernal year : 
Thine too these golden keys, immortal Boy ! 
This can unlock the gates of joy; 
Of horror that, and thrilling fears, 
Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears." 

III. 2. 

Nor second He, that rode sublime 
Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy, 
The secrets of the abyss to spy. 

He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time : 



THE PKOGRESS OF POESY. 25 

The living throne, the sapphire blaze, 
Where angels tremble while they gaze, 
He saw ; but, blasted with excess of light. 
Closed his eyes in endless night. 
Behold, where Dry den's less presumptuous car, 
Wide o'er the fields of glory bear 
Two coursers of ethereal race. 

With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding 
pace. 

III. 3. 

Hark, his hands the lyre explore ! 
Bright-eyed Fancy, hovering o'er, 
Scatters from her pictured urn 
Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. 
But ah ! 'tis heard no more^ 

Oh ! lyre divine, what daring spirit 

Wakes thee now ? Though he inherit 
Nor the pride, nor ample pinion. 

That the Theban eagle bear. 
Sailing with supreme dominion 

Through the azure deep of air : 
Yet oft before his infant eyes would run 

Such forms as glitter in the Muse's ray. 
With orient hues, unborrow'd of the sun ; 

Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way 

Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate ; 

Beneath the Good how far — but far above the Great. 
8 



26 GRAY S POETICAL WORKS. 

ODE VI. 

THE BARD. 

Pindaric. 

I. 1. 
" Ruin seize thee, ruthless King ! 

Confusion on thy banners wait ! 
Though, fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing, 

They mock the air with idle state. 
Helm, nor hauberk's twisted mail. 
Nor e'en thy virtues. Tyrant, shall avail 

To save thy secret soul from nightly fears. 

From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears !" 
Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride 

Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay, 
As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side 

He wound with toilsome march his long array. 
Stout Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance : 
"To arms !" cried Mortimer, and couch'd his quiver- 
ing lance. 

I. 2. 

On a rock, whose haughty brow 
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, 

Robed in the sable garb of woe. 
With haggard eyes the poet stood ; 





Be thine iespsdr and sceptred, carei 
To tiiumpiL and to die axe mine. 



THE BAED. 27 

(Loose his beard, and hoarj hair 
Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air,) 
And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire, 
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre. 

^^ Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave. 
Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath ! 
O'er thee, oh King ! their hundred arms they wave. 

Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe ; 
Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day, 
To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay. 

I. 3. 

" Cold is Cadwallo's tongue, 

That hush'd the stormy main: 
Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed : 

Mountains, ye mourn in vain 

Modred, whose magic song 
Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head. 

On dreary Arvon's shore they lie, 
Smear'd with gore, and ghastly pale : 
Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail ; 

The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by. 
Dear lost companions of my tuneful art, 

Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes, 
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart, 

Ye died amidst your dying country's cries — 
No more I weep. They do not sleep. 

On yonder cliff, a grisly band. 



28 GRAY'S POETICAL WOKKS. 

I see them sit ; they linger yet, 

Avengers of their native land : 
With me in dreadful harmony they join, 
And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line. 

II. 1. 

" Weave the warp, and weave the woof, 
The winding-sheet of Edward's race. 

Give ample room, and verge enough 
The characters of hell to trace. 
Mark the year, and mark the night, 
When Severn shall re-echo with affright 
The shrieks of death, through Berkley's roof that ring. 
Shrieks of an agonizing king ! 

She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs, 
That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate. 

From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs 
The scourge of heaven. What terrors found him wait ! 
Amazement in his van, with flight combined, ' 
And sorrow's faded form, and solitude behind. 

II. 2. 

i' Mighty victor, mighty lord, 
Low^ on his funeral couch he lies ! 

No pitying heart, no eye, afford 
A tear to grace his obsequies. 



THE BARD. 29 

Is the sable warrior fled ? 
Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead. 
The swarm, that in thy noontide beam were born ? 
Gone to salute the rising morn. 
Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, 

While proudly riding o'er the azure realm 
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes ; 

Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ; 
Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, 
That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey. 

IL 3. 

" Fill high the sparkling bowl. 
The rich repast prepare ; 

Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast : 
Close by the regal chair 

Fell Thirst and Famine scowl 

A baleful smile upon their baffled guest. 
Heard ye the din of battle bray, 

Lance to lance, and horse to horse ? 

Long years of havoc urge their destined course. 
And through the kindred squadrons mow their way. 

Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame. 
With many a foul and midnight murder fed. 

Revere his consort's faith, his father's fame, 
And spare the meek usurper's holy head ! 
3* 



go GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

Above, below, the rose of snow, 

Twined with her blushing foe, we spread ; 

The bristled boar in infant-gore 
Wallows beneath the thorny shade. 

Now, brothers, bending o'er the accursed loom, 

Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom. 

III. 1. 

"Edward, lo ! to sudden fate 
(Weave we the woof. The thread is spun.) 

Half of thy heart we consecrate. 
(The web is wove. The work is done.) 
Stay, oh stay ! nor thus forlorn 
Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn : 
In yon bright track, that fires the western skies, 
They melt, they vanish from my eyes. 
But oh ! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height 

Descending slow their glittering skirts unroll ? 
Visions of glory, spare my aching sight ! 

Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul ! 
No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail. 
All hail, ye genuine kings ! Britannia's issue, hail ! 

III. 2. 

" Girt with many a baron bold. 
Sublime their starry fronts they rear; 



THE BARD. 31 

And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old 
In bearded majesty appear. 
In the midst a form divine ! 
Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line ; 
Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face, 
Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace. 
What strings symphonious tremble in the air. 

What strains of vocal transport round her play ! 
Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear ! 

They breathe a soul to animate thy clay. 
Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings, 
Waves in the eye of heaven her many-colour'd wings. 

III. 3. 

'^ The verse adorn again 

Fierce War, and faithful Love, 
And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest. 

In buskin'd measures move 
Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain, 
With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. 

A voice, as of the cherub-choir. 
Gales from blooming Eden bear ; 
And distant warblings lessen on my ear. 

That lost in long futurity expire. 
Fond impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud. 

Raised by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day ? 



32 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, 

And warms the nations with redoubled raj. 

Enough for me : with joy I see 

The different doom our fates assign. 

Be thine despair, and sceptred care ; 
To triumph, and to die, are mine." 

He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height 

Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night. 



ODE VII. 

FOR MUSIC. 



Irregular. 

I. 

" Hence, avaunt, ('tis holy ground,) 

Comus, and his midnight-crew, 
And Ignorance with looks profound, 
■ And dreaming Sloth of pallid hue. 
Mad Sedition's cry profane. 
Servitude that hugs her chain. 
Nor in these consecrated bowers, 
Let painted Flattery hide her serpent-train in flowers. 



ODEFORMUSIC. 33 

Nor Envy base, nor creeping Gain, 
Pare the Muse's walk to stain, 
While bright-eyed Science watches round : 
Hence, away, 'tis holy ground!" 

II. 

From yonder realms of empyrean day 

Bursts on my ear the indignant lay : 
There sit the sainted sage, the bard divine, 

The few, whom genius gave to shine 
Through every unborn age, and undiscover'd clime. 

Rapt in celestial transport they ; 

Yet thither oft a glance from high . 

They send of tender sympathy 
To bless the place, where on their opening soul 

First the genuine ardour stole. 
'Twas Milton struck the deep-toned shell, 
And, as the choral warblings round him swell, 
Meek Newton's self bends from his state sublime. 
And nods his hoary head, and listens to the rhyme. 

III. 

^' Ye brown o'er-arching groves, 

That Contemplation loves. 
Where willowy Camus lingers with delight ! 

Oft at the blush of dawn 

I trod your level lawn. 
Oft woo'd the gleam of Cynthia silver bright 



34 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of Folly, 
With freedom by my side, and soft-eyed Melancholy.'' 

IV. 

But hark ! the portals sound, and pacing forth 

With solemn steps and slow. 
High potentates, and dames of royal birth, 
And mitred fathers in long order go : 
Great Edward, with the lilies on his brow 

From haughty Gallia torn, 
And sad Chatillon, on her bridal morn 
That wept her bleeding Love, and princely Clare, 
And Anjou's heroine, and the paler rose, 
The rival of her crown and of her woes. 

And either Henry there. 
The murder 'd saint, and the majestic lord 

That broke the bonds of Kome. 

(Their tears, their little triumphs o'er, 

Their human passions now no more. 
Save Charity, that glows beyond the tomb.) 
All that on Granta's fruitful plain 
Rich streams of regal bounty pour'd. 
And bade these awful fanes and turrets rise. 
To hail their Fitzroy's festal morning come ; 

And thus they speak in soft accord 

The liquid language of the skies : — 



ODBFORMUSIC. 85 



(■<• What is grandeur, wliat is power ? 
Heavier toil, superior pain. 
What the bright reward we gain ? 
The grateful memory of the good. 
Sweet is the breath of vernal shower. 
The bee's collected treasures sweet. 
Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet 
The still small voice of Gratitude." 

Foremost and leaning from her golden cloud 

The venerable Margaret see ! 
i' Welcome, my noble son, (she cries aloud,) 

To this, thy kindred train, and me : 
Pleased in thy lineaments we trace 
A Tudor's fire, a Beaufort's grace. 
Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye. 
The flower unheeded shall descry. 
And bid it round heaven's altars shed 
The fragrance of its blushing head : 
Shall raise from earth the latent gem 
To glitter on the diadem. 

VII. 

<' Lo ! Granta waits to lead her blooming band : 
Not obvious, not obtrusive, she 



36 GEAY'S poetical WORKS. 

No vulgar praise, no venal incense flings ; 

Nor dares with courtly tongue refined 
Profane thy inborn royalty of mind : 

She reveres herself and thee. 
With modest pride to grace thy youthful brow, 
The laureate wreath, that Cecil wore, she brings. 

And to thy just, thy gentle hand. 

Submits the fasces of her sway. 
While spirits blest above and men below 
Join with glad voice the loud symphonious lay. 

VIII. 

^' Through the wild waves as they roar. 
With w^atchful eye and dauntless mien, 
Thy steady course of honour keep, 
Nor fear the rocks, nor seek the shore : 
The star of Brunswick smiles serene, 
And gilds the horrors of the deep." 



THE FATAL SISTERS. 37 



4 



ODE VIII. 
THE FATAL SISTERS. 

FROM THE NORSE TONGUE. 

Now the storm begins to lower, 
(Haste, the loom of hell prepare,) 

Iron sleet of arrowy shower 
Hurtles in the darken'd air. 

Glittering lances are the loom. 

Where the duskj warp we strain, 
Weaving many a soldier's doom, 

Orkney's woe, and Randver's bane. 

See the grisly texture grow ! 

('Tis of human entrails made,) 
And the weights, that play below. 

Each a gasping warrior's head. ' 

Shafts for shuttles, dipt in gore, 
^ Shoot the trembling chords along. 
Swords, that once a monarch bore. 
Keep the tissue close and strong. 



88 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

Mista, black terrific maid, 

Sangrida, and Hilda, see, 
Join the wayward work to aid : 

'Tis the woof of victory. 

Ere the ruddy sun be set, 

Pikes must shiver, javelins sing. 

Blade with clattering buckler meet. 
Hauberk crash, and helmet ring. 

(Weave the crimson web of war) 

Let us go, and let us fly, 
Where our friends the conflict share, — 

Where they triumph, where they die. 

As the paths of fate we tread. 

Wading through the ensanguined field 

Gondula, and Geira, spread 

O'er the youthful king your shield. 

We the reins to slaughter give, 
Ours to kill, and ours to spare : 

Spite of danger he shall live. 
(Weave the crimson web of war.) 

They, whom once the desert-beach 
Pent within its bleak domain, 

Soon their ample sway shall stretch 
O'er the plenty of the plain. 



THE FATAL SISTERS. 39 

Low the dauntless earl is laid. 

Gored with many a gaping wound : 

Fate demands a nobler head : 

Soon a king shall bite the ground. 

Long his loss shall Eirin weep, 

JSTe'er again his likeness see ; 
Long her strains in sorrow steep, 

Strains of immortality ! 

Horror covers all the heath, 
Clouds of carnage blot the sun. 

Sisters, weave the web of death ; 
Sisters, cease ! the work is done ! 

Hail the task, and hail the hands ! 

Songs of joy and triumph sing ! 
Joy to the victorious bands ; 

Triumph to the younger king. 

Mortal, thou that hear'st the tale, 

Learn the tenor of our song. 
Scotland, through each winding vale 

Far and wide the notes prolong. 

Sisters, hence with spurs of speed : 
Each her thundering falchion wield ; 

Each bestride her sable steed. 
Hurry, hurry to the field! 



40 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 



ODE IX. 

THE VEGTAM'S KIVITHA; 

OR, THE DESCENT OF ODIN. 

FROM THE NORSE TONGUE. 

Uprose the king of men with speed, 
And saddled straight his coal-black steed : 
Down the yawning steep he rode, 
That leads to Hela's drear abode. 
Him the dog of darkness spied. 
His shaggy throat he opened wide 
(While from his jaws, with carnage fill'd, 
Foam and human gore distill'd :) 
Hoarse he bays with hideous din, 
Eyes that glow, and fangs that grin : 
And long pursues with fruitless yell, 
Tlie father of the powerful spell. 
Onward still his way he takes, 
(The groaning earth beneath him shakes,) 
Till full before his fearless eyes 
The portals nine of hell arise. 

Right against the eastern gate. 
By the moss-grown pile he sate ; 



THE VEGTAM'S KIVITHA. 41 

Where long of yore to sleep was laid 
The dust of the prophetic maid. 
Facing to the northern clime, 
Thrice he traced the Runic rhyme ; 
Thrice pronounced in accents dread, 
The thrilling verse that wakes the dead ; 
Till from out the hollow ground 
Slowly breathed a sullen sound. 

PROPHETESS. 

What call unknown, what charms presume 
To break the quiet of the tomb ? 
Who thus afflicts my troubled sprite, 
And drags me from the realms of night ? 
Long on these mouldering bones have beat 
The winter's snow, the summer's heat, 
The drenching dews, and driving rain ! 
Let me, let me sleep again. 
Who is he, with voice unblest. 
That calls me from the bed of rest ? 

ODIN. 

A traveller, to thee unknown, 
Is he that calls, a warrior's son. 
Thou the deeds of light shalt know ; 
Tell me what is done below, 
4* 



42 gray's poetical WORKS. 

For whom yon glittering board is spread, 
Dress'd for whom yon golden bed ? 

PROPHETESS. 

Mantling in the goblet see 
The pure beverage of the bee ; 
O'er it hangs the shield of gold ; 
'Tis the drink of Balder bold : 
Balder's head to death is given. 
Pain can reach the sons of heaven ! 
Unwilling I my lips unclose : 
Leave me, leave me to repose. 

ODIN. 

Once again my call obey : 
Prophetess, arise, and say, 
What dangers Odin's child await, 
Who the author of his fate ? 

PROPHETESS. 

In Hoder's hand the hero's doom : 
His brother sends him to the tomb. 
Now my weary lips I close : 
Leave me, leave me to repose. 



THE VEGTAM S KIVITHA. 
ODIN. 

Prophetess, my spell obey : 
Once again arise, and say, 
Who the avenger of his guilt. 
By whom shall Hoder's blood be spilt ? 

PROPHETESS. 



In the caverns of the west, 
By Odin's fierce embrace comprest, 
A wondrous boy shall Rinda bear. 
Who ne'er shall comb his raven-hair. 
Nor wash his visage in the stream. 
Nor see the sun's departing beam ; 
Till he on Hoder's corse shall smile. 
Flaming on the funeral pile. 
Now my weary lips I close : 
Leave me, leave me to repose. 



ODIN. 



Yet a while my call obey : 
Prophetess, awake, and say. 
What virgins these, in speechless woe. 
That bend to earth their solemn brow. 
That their flaxen tresses tear, 
And snowy veils that float in air ? 



44 gray's poetical W K K S. 

Tell me whence their sorrows rose : 
Then I leave thee to repose. 

PROPHETESS. 

Ha ! no traveller art thou, 
King of men, I know thee now ; 
Mightiest of a mighty line 

ODIN". 

No boding maid of skill divine 
Art thou, nor prophetess of good ; 
But mother of the giant brood ! 

PROPHETESS. 

Hie thee hence, and boast at home, 
That never shall inquirer come 
To break my iron-sleep again ; 
Till Lok has burst his tenfold chain. 
Never, till substantial night 
Has reassumed her ancient right ; 
Till wrapt in flames, in ruin hmi'd, 
Sinks the fabric of the world. 



THE TRIUMPHS OP OWEN. 45 



ODE X. 

THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN. 



FROM THE WELSH. 



Owen's praise demands mj song, 
Owen swift, and Owen strong ; 
Fairest flower of Roderic's stem, 
Gwyneth's shield, and Britain's gem. 
He nor heaps his brooded stores, 
Nor on all profusely pours ; 
Lord of every regal art. 
Liberal hand, and open heart. 

Big with hosts of mighty name. 
Squadrons three against him came ; 
This the force of Eirin hiding. 
Side by side as proudly riding. 
On her shadow long and gay 
Lochlin plows the watery way ; 
There the Norman sails afar 
Catch the winds and join the war : 
Black and huge along they sweep, 
Burdens of the angry deep. 



46 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

Dauntless on his native sands 
The dragon-son of Mona stands y 
In glittering arms and glory drest, 
High he rears his ruby crest. 
There the thundering strokes begin, 
There the press, and there the din ; 
Talymalfra's rocky shore 
Echoing to the battle's roar. 
Check 'd by the torrent-tide of blood. 
Backward Meinai rolls his flood ; 
While, heap'd his master's feet around, 
Prostrate warriors gnaw the ground. 
Where his glowing eyeballs turn, 
Thousand banners round him burn : 
Where he points his purple spear, 
Hasty, hasty Rout is there. 
Marking with indignant eye 
Fear to stop, and shame to fly. 
There Confusion, Terror's child. 
Conflict fierce, and Ruin wild, 
Agony, that pants for breath. 
Despair and honourable Death. 



THBDEATHOFHOEL. 47 



ODE XI. 
THE DEATH OF HOEL. 

PROM THE WELSH. 

Had I but the torrent's might, 
With headlong rage and wild affright 
Upon Deira's squadrons hurl'd, 
To rush and sweep them from the world ! 

Too, too secure in youthful pride, 
By them, my friend, my Hoel, died, 
Great Cian's son : of Madoc old 
He ask'd no heaps of hoarded gold ; 
Alone in nature's wealth array'd. 
He ask'd and had the lovely maid. 

To Cattraeth's vale in glittering row 
Twice two hundred warriors go : 
Every warrior's manly neck 
Chains of regal honour deck, 
Wreath' d in many a golden link : 
From the golden cup they drink 
Nectar that the bees produce. 
Or the grape's ecstatic juice. 



48 gray's poetical WORKS. 

Flush'd with mirth and hope they burn 
But none from Cattraeth's vale return, 
Save Aeron brave, and Conan strong 
(Bursting through the bloody throng,) 
And I, the meanest of them all. 
That live to weep and sing their fall. 

Have ye seen the tusky boar, 
Or the bull with sullen roar. 
On surrounding foes advance ? 
So Caradoc bore his lance. 

Conan's name, my lay, rehearse. 
Build to him the lofty verse. 
Sacred tribute of the bard, 
Yerse, the hero's sole reward. 
As the flame's devouring force ; 
As the whirlwind in its course ; 
As the thunder's fiery stroke. 
Glancing on the shiver 'd oak ; 
Did the sword of Conan mow 
The crimson harvest of the foe. 



ON THE DEATH OF RICHARD WEST. 49 

SONNET 
ON THE DEATH OF MR. RICHARD WEST. 

In vain to me the smiling mornings sliine, 

And reddening Phoebus lifts his golden fire : 
The birds in vain their amorous descant join; 

Or cheerful fields resume their green attire. 
These ears, alas ! for other notes repine ; 

A diff'erent object do these eyes require : 
My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine ; 

And in my breast the imperfect joys expire. 
Yet morning smiles the busy race to cheer. 

And new-born pleasure brings to happier men : 
The fields to all their wonted tribute bear : 

To warm their little loves the birds complain : 
I fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear, 

And weep the more, because I weep in vain. 



50 GRAY S POETICAL WORKS. 



EPITAPH I. 
ON MRS. JANE CLERKE. 

Lo ! where this silent marble weeps, 

A friend, a wife, a mother sleeps ; 

A heart, within whose sacred cell 

The peaceful virtues loved to dwell. 

Affection warm, and faith sincere, 

And soft humanity were there. 

In agony, in death resign'd, 

She felt the wound she left behind, 

Her infant image here below, 

Sits smiling on a father's woe : 

Whom what awaits, while yet he strays 

Along the lonely vale of days ? 

A pang, to secret sorrow dear ; 

A sigh ; an unavailing tear ; 

Till time shall every grief remove. 

With life, with memory, and with love. 



ON SIR AVILLIAM WILLIAMS. 51 



EPITAPH II. 
ON SIR WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 

HerEj foremost in the dangerous paths of fame, 
Young Williams fought for England's fair renown ; 

His mind each Muse, each Grace adorn'd his frame, 
Nor envy dared to view him with a frown. 

At Aix, his voluntary sword he drew. 

There first in blood his infant honour seal'd . 

From fortune, pleasure, science, love, he flew ; 
And scorn'd repose when Britain took the field. 

With eyes of flame, and cool undaunted breast, 
Victor he stood on Bellisle's rocky steeps— 

Ah, gallant youth ! this marble tells the rest. 
Where melancholy friendship bends, and weeps. 



62 GEAY'S POETICAL WORKS 



ELEGY 

WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. 

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 
( The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, / 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds. 

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds : 

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower. 
The moping owl does to the moon complain 

Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, 
Molest her ancient solitary reign. 

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, 
Where heaves the tui'f in many a mouldering heap, 

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid. 

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. 

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn. 

The swallow twitterino; from the straw-built shed. 







jK^-=* — '-- "9 




.^^^JvV^C 



The curfew tolls the Imell of p arting day' 



ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD. 53 

The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, 
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, 

Or busy housewife ply her evening care ; 
No children run to lisp their sire's return, 

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. 

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield. 

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke : 

How jocund did they drive their team afield ! 

How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke ! 

Let not ambition mock their useful toil, 

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure ; 
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile 

The short and simple annals of the poor. 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, ^ 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
Await alike the inevitable hour : ^^i-vU.'V^-^l'^iVi 

I The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 
If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, 

Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault 
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 
5* 



64 GRAY'S POETICAL WOKKS. 

Can storied urn, or animated bust, 

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? 

Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust, 
Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death ? 

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; 

Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd, 
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. 

But knowledge to their eyes her ample page 
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll ; 

Chill penury repress'd their noble rage, 
And froze the genial current of the soul. 

Full many a gem, of purest ray serene, 
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear : 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 

Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast 
The little tyrant of his fields withstood ; 

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, 
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. 

The applause of listening senates to command, 
The threats of pain and ruin to despise, 







le Tjoast of ieraldr/, tie ^j-mp of power , 

!2a^e 53- 



ELEGY IN A COUNTEY CHUKCHYARD. 55 

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 

And read their history in a nation's eyes, 

Their lot forbade : nor circumscribed alone 

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ', 

Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, 
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind ; 

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, 
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, 

Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride 
With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. 

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, 
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray ; 

Along the cool sequester 'd vale of life 

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 

Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect, 
Some frail memorial still erected nigh. 

With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd, 
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 

Their name, their years, spelt by the unletter'd Muse, 

The place of fame and elegy supply : 
And many a holy text around she strews. 

That teach the rustic moralist to die. 



56 gray's poetical WORKS. 

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, 
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd, 

Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind ? 

On some fond breast the parting soul relies, 
Some pious drops the closing eye requires ; 

Ev'n from the tomb the voice of nature cries, 
Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires. 

For thee, who, mindful of the unhonour'd dead, 
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate ; 

If chance, by lonely contemplation led, 
Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate, 

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, — 
<•<' Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn 

Brushing with hasty steps the dews away, 
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. 

'' There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high. 

His listless length at noontide would he stretch. 
And pore upon the brook that babbles by. 

" Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, 
Muttering his wayward fancies would he rove ; 

Now drooping, woful-wan, like one forlorn. 

Or crazed with care, or cross'd in hopeless love. 



ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYAED. 57 

*« One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill, 
Along the heath, and near his favourite tree : 

Another came ; nor jet beside the rill, 
I^or up the lawn, nor at the wood was he : 

" The next, with dirges due in sad array 

Slow through the church way path we see him borne : 

Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay 
Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn." 

THE EPITAPH. 

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth, 
A youth, to fortune and to fame unknown : 

Fair Science frown' d not on his humble birth, 
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. 

Large*was his bounty, and his soul sincere. 
Heaven did a recompense as largely send : 

He gave to Misery (all he had) a tear. 

He gain'd from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend. 

No farther seek his merits to disclose, 

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, 

(There they alike in trembling hope repose,) 
The bosom of his Father and his God. 



58 gray's poetical WORKS. 



OMITTED STANZAS. 

In Gray's first MS. of the "Elegy," after the eighteenth 
stanza, ending with the word " flame," were the four following 
stanzas : 

The thoughtless world to majesty may bow, 

Exalt the brave, and idolize success ; 
But more to innocence their safety owe. 

Than power or genius e'er conspired to bless. 

And thou who, mindful of the unhonour'd dead, 
Dost in these notes their artless tale relate, 

By night and lonely contemplation led 
To wander in the gloomy walks of fate : 

Hark ! how the sacred calm, that breathes around. 
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease ; 

In still small accents whispering from the ground, 
A grateful earnest of eternal peace. 

No more, with reason and thyself at strife. 
Give anxious cares and endless wishes room ; 

But through the cool sequester'd vale of life 
Pursue the silent tenor of thy doom. 

Here the poem was originally intended to conclude. 



TRANSLATION FROM STATIUP. 



59 



After the twenty-fifth stanza, ending with the word " lawn," 
was the following stanza : 

Him have we seen the greenwood side along, 
While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done, 

Oft as the woodlark piped her farewell song, 
With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun. 

And in some of the first editions, immediately before " The 
Epitaph," was the following stanza : 

There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year, 
By hands unseen, are showers of violets found ; 

The redbreast loves to build and warble there. 
And little footsteps lightly print the ground. 



TRANSLATION FROM STATIUS. 

Third in the labours of the disc came on, 
With sturdy step and slow, Hippomedon ; 
Artful and strong he poised the w^ell-known weight 
By Phlegyas warn'd, and fired by Mnestheus' fate, 
That to avoid, and this to emulate. 
His vigorous arm he tried before he flung, 
Braced all his nerves, and every sinew strung ; 



60 GRAY^S POETICAL WORKS. 

Then, with a tempest's whirl, and wary eye. 
Pursued his cast, and hurl'd the orb on high : 
The orb on high tenacious of its course. 
True to the mighty arm that gave it force, 
Far overleaps all bound, and joys to see 
Its ancient lord secure of victory. 
The theatre's green height and woody wall 
Tremble ere it precipitates its fall ; 
The ponderous mass sinks in the cleaving ground, 
While vales and woods and echoing hills rebound. 
As when from Etna's smoking summit broke, 
The eyeless Cyclops heaved the craggy rock • 
Where Ocean frets beneath the dashing oar. 
And parting surges round the vessel roar ; 
'Twas there he aim'd the meditated harm. 
And scarce Ulysses 'scaped his giant arm. 
A tiger's pride the victor bore away. 
With native spots and artful labour gay, 
A shining border round the margin roll'd, 
And calm'd the terrors of his claws in gold. 
Cambridge, May 8, 1736. 



SONG. 



61 



Thyrsis, when we parted, swore 
Ere the spring he would return — 

Ah ! what means yon violet flower ! 
And the bud that decks the thorn ! 

'Twas the lark that upward sprung ! 

'Twas the nightingale that sung ! 

Idle notes ! untimely green ! 

Why this unavailing haste ? 
Western gales and skies serene 

Speak not always winter past. 
Cease, my doubts, my fears to move, 
Spare the honour of my love. 



62 GRAY'S POETICAL WOEKS. 



A LONG STORY. 

Ix Britain's isle, no matter where, 
An ancient pile of building stands : 

The Huntingdons and Hattons there 
Employ'd the power of fairy hands 

To raise the ceiling's fretted height. 
Each panel in achievements clothing, 

Rich windows that exclude the light, 
And passages that lead to nothing. 

Full oft within the spacious walls. 
When he had fifty winters o'er him, 

My grave Lord-Keeper led the brawls ; 
The seals and maces danced before him. 

His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green, 
II 's high-crown'd hat, and satin doublet, 

Moved the stout heart of England's queen, 

Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it. 

What, in the very first beginning ! 
Shame of the versifying tribe ! 



ALONGSTORY. 63 

Your history whither are you spinning ? 
Can you do nothing but describe ? 

A house there is (and that's enough) 
From whence one fatal morning issues 

A brace of warriors, not in buff, 

But rustling in their silks and tissues. 

The first came cap-a-pee from France, 

Her conquering destiny fulfilling, 
Whom meaner beauties eye askance. 

And vainly ape her art of killing. 

The other amazon kind heaven 

Had arm'd with spirit, wit, and satire ; 

But Cobham had the polish given, 

And tipp'd her arrows with good-nature. 

To celebrate her eyes, her air — 

Coarse panegyrics would but tease her : 

Melissa is her '' nom de guerre." 

Alas, who would not wish to please her ! 

With bonnet blue and capuchine, 

And aprons long, they hid their armour ; 

And veil'd their weapons, bright and keen, 
In pity to the country farmer. 



64 gray's POETICAL WORKS. 

Fame J in the shape of Mr. P — t, 

(By this time all the parish know it,) 
Had told that thereabouts there lurk'd 

A wicked imp they call a poet : 

Who prowl'd the country far and near, 
Bewitch'd the children of the peasants, 

Dried up the cows, and lamed the deer. 

And suck'd the eggs, and kill'd the pheasants. 

My lady heard their joint petition, 

Swore by her coronet and ermine, 
She'd issue out her high commission 

To rid the manor of such vermin. 

The heroines undertook the task, 

Through lanes unknown, o'er stiles they ventured, 
Rapp'd at the door, nor stay'd to ask, 

But bounce into the parlour enter'd. 

The trembling family they daunt, 

They flirt, they sing, they laugh, they tattle. 
Rummage his mother, pinch his aunt. 

And up stairs in a whirlwind rattle : 

Each hole and cupboard they explore. 
Each creek and cranny of his chamber. 



ALONGSTORY. 65 

Run hurry-scurry round the floor, 
And o'er the bed and tester clamber ; 

Into the drawers and china pry, 

Papers and books, a huge imbroglio ! 

Under a tea-cup he might lie, 

Or creased, like dog's-ears, in a folio. 

On the first marching of the troops. 
The Muses, hopeless of his pardon, 

Convey'd him underneath their hoops 
To a small closet in the garden. 

So rumour says : (who will, believe.) 

But that they left the door ajar. 
Where, safe and laughing in his sleeve, 

He heard the distant din of war. 

Short was his joy. He little knew 
The power of magic was no fable ; 

Out of the window, whisk, they flew, 
But left a spell upon the table. 

The words too eager to unriddle. 

The poet felt a strange disorder ; 
Transparent bird-lime form'd the middle, 

And chains invisible the border. 

6^ 



6(3 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

So cunning was the apparatus, 

The powerful pot-hooks did so move him, 
That, will he, nill he, to the great house 

He went, as if the devil drove him. 

Yet on his way (no sign of grace, 
For folks in fear are apt to pray) 

To Phoebus he preferr'd his case, 

And begg'd his aid that dreadful day. 

The godhead would have back'd his quarrel ; 

But with a blush, on recollection, 
Own'd that his quiver and his laurel 

'Gainst four such eyes were no protection. 

The court was sate, the culprit there. 

Forth from their gloomy mansions creeping, 

The lady Janes and Joans repair. 

And from the gallery stand peeping : 

Such as in silence of the night 

Come (sweep) along some winding entry, 

(Styack has often seen the sight,) 
Or at the chapel-door stand sentry. 

In peaked hoods and mantles tarnish'd, 
Sour visages, enough to scare ye. 



ALONGSTORY. 67 

High dames of honour once, that garnish'd 
The drawing-room of fierce Queen Mary. 

The peeress comes. The audience stare, 
And doff their hats with due submission: 

She curtsies, as she takes her chair, 
To all the people of condition. 

The bard, with many an artful fib, 

Had in imagination fenced him, 
Disproved the arguments of Squib, 

And all that Groom could urge against him. 

But soon his rhetoric forsook him. 
When he the solemn hall had seen ; 

A sudden fit of ague shook him, 
He stood as mute as poor Macleane. 

Yet something he was heard to mutter, 
" How in the park beneath an old tree, 

(Without design to hurt the butter, 
Or any malice to the poultry,) 

" He once or twice had penn'd a sonnet; 

Yet hoped, that he might save his bacon : 
Numbers would give their oaths upon it, 

He ne'er was for a conjurer taken." 



68 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

The ghostly prudes with hagged face 
Akeadj had condemn'd the sinner. 

My lady rose, and with a grace — 

She smiled, and bade him come to dinner. 

<-<■ Jesu-Maria ! Madam Bridget, 

Why, what can the Viscountess mean?" 

(Cried the square-hoods in woful fidget,) 
'' The times are alter'd quite and clean ! 

" Decorum's turn'd to mere civility ; 

Her air and all her manners show it 
Commend me to her aifability ! 

Speak to a commoner and poet 1" 

[Here five hundred stanzas are lost.] 

And SO God save our noble king. 

And guard us from long-winded lubbers, 

That to eternity ^ould sing. 

And keep my lady from her rubbers. 



ODE ON VICISSITUDE. 69 



POSTHUMOUS POEMS AND 
FKAGMENTS. 



ODE ON THE PLEASURE AEISING EROM 
VICISSITUDE. 

[Left unfiuished by Gray. The additions by Mason are distinguishied by inverted 

commas.] 

Now the golden morn aloft 
Waves her dew-bespangled wing, 
With, vermeil cheek and whisper soft 

She wooes the tardy spring : 
Till April starts, and calls around 
The sleeping fragrance from the ground ; 
And lightly o'er the lively scene 
Scatters his freshest tenderest green. 

New-born flocks, in rustic dance, 

Frisking ply their feeble feet ; 
Forgetful of their wintry trance. 

The birds his presence greet : 
But chief, the sky-lark warbles high 
His trembling thrilling ecstasy : 



GRAY^S POETICAL WORKS. 

And, lessening from the dazzled sight, 
Melts into air and liquid light. 

Rise, mj soul ! on wings of fire, 

Rise the rapt'rous choir among : 
Hark ! 'tis nature strikes the Ijre, 

And leads the gen'ral song : 
« Warm let the lyric transport flow. 
Warm as the ray that bids it glow ; 
And animates the vernal grove 
With health, with harmony, and love.' 

Yesterday the sullen year 

Saw the snowy whirlwind fly ; 
Mute was the music of the air, 
The herd stood drooping by : 
Their raptures now that wildly floAv, 
No yesterday nor morrow know ; 
'Tis man alone that joy descries 
With forward, and reverted eyes. 

Smiles on past misfortune's brow 
Soft reflection's hand can trace ; 

And o'er the cheek of sorrow throw 
A melancholy grace ; 

While hope prolongs our happier hour. 

Or deepest shades, that dimly loAver 



ODE ON VICISSITUDE. 71 

And blacken round our weary way, 
Gilds with a gleam of distant day. 

Still where rosy pleasure leads, 

See a kindred grief pursue ; 
Behind the steps that misery treads, 

Approaching comfort view : 
The hues of bliss more brightly glow, 
Chastis'd by sabler tints of woe ; 
And blended form with artful strife. 
The strength and harmony of life. 

See the wretch that long has tost 

On the thorny bed of pain, 
At length repair his vigour lost, 

And breathe and walk again : 
The meanest floweret of the vale, 
The simjDlest note that swells the gale, 
The common sun, the air, the skies. 
To him are opening paradise. 

Humble quiet builds her cell, 

Near the source whence pleasure flows ; 
She eyes the clear crystalline well. 

And tastes it as it goes. 
« While' far below the ' madding' crowd 
• Rush headlong to the dangerous flood,' 



72 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

Where broad and turbulent it sweeps, 
<■ And' perish in the boundless deeps. 

Mark where indolence and pride, 

< Sooth'd by flattery's tinkling sound, 
Go, softly rolling, side by side, 

Their dull but daily round : 
<■ To these, if Hebe's self should bring 
The purest cup from pleasure's spring. 
Say, can they taste the flavour high 
Of sober, simple, genuine joy ? 

< Mark ambition's march sublime 

Up to power's meridian's height ; 
While pale-eyed envy sees him climb. 

And sickens at the sight. 
Phantoms of danger, death, and dread, 
Float hourly round ambition's head ; 
While spleen within his rival's breast. 
Sits brooding on her scorpion nest. 

(■ Happier he, the peasant, far, 
From the pangs of passion free. 

That breathes the keen yet wholesome air 
Of rugged penury. 

He, when his morning task is done, 

Can slumber in the noontide sun ; 



AGRIPPINA. 73 

And hie him home, at evening's close, 
To sweet repast and calm repose. 

<■ He, unconscious whence the bliss, 

Feels, and owns in carols rude. 
That all the circling jojs are his, 

Of dear Vicissitude. 
From toils he wins the spirits light. 
From busy day the peaceful night ; 
Rich, from the very want of wealth. 
In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.' 



AGRIPPINA, A TRAGEDY: 

A FRAGMENT. 
DRAMATIS PERSONS. 



Agrippina, the Empress-mother. 
Nero, the Emperor. 

PoppiEA, believed to be in love with Otho. 
Otho, a young man of quality, in love 
with Popp^A. 



Seneca, the Emperor's Preceptor. 
Anicetus, Captain of the Guards. 
Demetrius, the Cynic, friend to Seneca. 
AcERONiA, Confidant to Agrippina. 



ACT I. Scene I. — Agrippina. Aceronia. 

Scene. — The Emperor'' s villa at Baise. 

Agrip. 'Tis well, begone ! your errand is per- 
form'd, [^Speaks as to Anicetus entering. 

The message needs no comment. Tell your master. 



74 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

His mother shall obey him. Say you saw her 

Yielding due reverence to his high command : 

Alone, unguarded, and without a lictor, 

As j&ts the daughter of Germanicus. 

Say, she retired to Antium ; there to tend 

Her household cares, a woman's best employment. 

What if you add how she turn'd pale and trembled ; 

You think, you spied a tear stand in her eye, 

And would have dropp'd, but that her pride restrain'd it ? 

(Go ! you can paint it well) 'twill profit you, 

And please the stripling. Yet 'twould dash his joy 

To hear the spirit of Britannicus 

Yet walks on earth : at_ least there are who know 

Without a spell to raise, and bid it fire 

A thousand haughty hearts, unused to shake 

When a boy frowns, nor to be lured with smiles 

To taste of hollow kindness, or partake 

His hospitable board : they are aware 

Of the unpledged bowl, they love not aconite. 

Acer. He's gone : and much I hope these walls 
alone 
And the mute air are privy to your passion. 
Forgive your servant's fears, who sees the danger 
Which fierce resentment cannot fail to raise 
In haughty youth, and irritated power. 

Agrip. And dost thou talk to me, to me of danger, 
Of haughty youth and irritated power, 



AQKIPPINA. 75 

To her that gave it being, her that arm'd 
This painted Jove, and taught his novice hand 
To aim the forked bolt ; while he stood trembling. 
Scared at the sound, and dazzled with its brightness ? 

'Tis like, thou hast forgot, when yet a stranger 
To adoration, to the grateful steam 
Of flattery's incense, and obsequious vows 
From voluntary realms, a puny boy, 
Deck'd with no other lustre than the blood 
Of Agrippina's race, he lived unknown 
To fame, or fortune ; haply eyed at distance 
Some edileship, ambitious of the power 
To judge of weights and measures : scarcely dared 
On expectation's strongest wing to soar 
High as the consulate, that empty shade 
Of long-forgotten liberty : when I 
Oped his young eye to bear the blaze of greatness ; 
Show'd him where empire tower'd, and bade him strike 
The noble quarry. Gods ! then was the time 
To shrink from danger ; fear might then have worn 
The mask of prudence ; but a heart like mine, 
A heart that glows with the pure Julian fire. 
If bright ambition from her craggy seat 
Display the radiant prize, will mount undaunted, 
Gain the rough heights, and grasp the dangerous 
honour. 



76 GRAY^S POETICAL WORKS. 

Acer. Through various life I have pursued jour 
steps, 
Have seen jour soul, and wonder' d at its daring : 
Hence rise mj fears. Nor am I jet to learn 
How vast the debt of gratitude which Nero 
To such a mother owes ; the world, jou gave him, 
Suffices not to paj the obligation. 

I well remember too, (for I was present,) 
When in a secret and dead hour of night. 
Due sacrifice perform 'd with barbarous rites 
Of mutter'd charms, and solemn invocation, 
You bade the Magi call the dreadful powers 
That read futuritj, to know the fate 
Impending o'er jour son : their answer was. 
If the son reign, the mother perishes. 
Perish ( jou cried) the mother ! reign the son ! 
He reigns, the rest is heaven's; who oft has bade, 
Even when its will seem'd wrote in lines of blood, 
The unthought event disclose a whiter meaning. 
Think too how oft in weak and sicklj minds 
The sweets of kindness lavishlj indulged 
Rankle to gall ; and benefits too great 
To be repaid sit heavj on the soul, 
As unrequited wrongs. The willing homage 
Of prostrate Rome, the senate's joint applause, 
The riches of the earth, the train of pleasures 
That wait on jouth, and arbitrarj swaj : 



AGRIPPINA. 77 

These were your gift, and with them you bestow'd 
The very power he has to be ungrateful. 

Agrip. Thus ever grave and undisturb'd reflection 
Pours its cool dictates in the madding ear 
Of rage, and thinks to quench the fire it feels not. 
Say'st thou I must be cautious, must be silent, 
And tremble at the phantom I have raised ? 
Carry to him thy timid counsels. He 
Perchance may heed them : tell him too, that one 
Who had such liberal power to give, may still 
With equal power resume that gift, and raise 
A tempest that shall shake her own creation 
To its original atoms — tell me ! say, 
/This mighty emperor, this dreaded hero, 
I Has he beheld the glittering front of war ? 
\ Knows his soft ear the trumpet's thrilling voice, 
And outcry of the battle ? Have his limbs 
Sweat under iron harness ? Is he not 
The silken son of dalliance, nursed in ease 
And pleasure's flowery lap ? — Rubellius lives. 
And Sylla has his friends, though school'd by fear 
To bow the supple knee, and court the times 
With shows of fair obeisance : and a call. 
Like mine, might serve belike to wake pretensions 
Drowsier than theirs, who boast the genuine blood 
Of our imperial house. 



I 



78 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

Acer. Did I not wish to check this dangerous 
passion, 
I might remind my mistress that her nod 
Can rouse eight hardy legions, wont to stem 
With stubborn nerves the tide, and face the rigour 
Of bleak Germania's snows. Four, not less brave, 
That in Armenia quell the Parthian force 
Under the warlike Corbulo, by you 
Mark'd for their leader : these, by ties confirm' d, 
Of old respect and gratitude, are yours. 
Surely the Masians too, and those of Egypt, 
Have not forgot your sire : the eye of Rome 
And the Praetorian camp have long revered, 
With custom'd awe, the daughter, sister, wife, 
And mother of their Caesars. 

Agrip. Ha ! by Juno, 
It bears a noble semblance. On this base 
My great revenge shall rise ; or say we sound 
The trump of liberty ; there will not want, 
Even in the servile senate, ears to own 
Her spirit-stirring voice ; Soranus there. 
And Cassius ; Vetus too, and Thrasea, 
Minds of the antique cast, rough, stubborn souls, 
That struggle with the yoke. How shall the spark 
Unquenchable, that glows within their breasts, 
Blaze into freedom, when the idle herd 
(Slaves from the womb, created but to stare, 



AGRIPPINA. 79 



And bellow in the Circus) yet will start, 
And shake them at the name of liberty, 
Stung by a senseless word, a vain tradition, 
As there were magic in it ? Wrinkled beldams 
Teach it their grandchildren, as somewhat rare 
That anciently appear'd, but when, extends 
Beyond their chronicle — oh ! 'tis a cause 
To arm the hand of childhood/and rebrace 



The slacken'd sinews of time-wearied ag^ 

Yes, we may meet, ungrateful boy, we may ! 
Again the buried Genius of old Rome 
Shall from the dust uprear his reverend head, 
Roused by the shout of millions : there before 
His high tribunal thou and I appear. 
Let majesty sit on thy awful brow. 
And lighten from thy eye : around thee call 
The gilded swarm that wantons in the sunshine 
Of thy full favour ; Seneca be there 
In gorgeous phrase of labour'd eloquence 
To dress thy pleaJ and Burrhus strengthen it 
With his plain soldier's oath and honest seeming. 
Against thee, liberty and Agrippina : 
The world, the prize ; and fair befall the victors. 

But soft ! why do I waste the fruitless hours 
In threats unexecuted ? Haste thee, fly 
These hated walls that seem to mock my shame. 
And cast me forth in duty to their lord. 



80 GRAY^S POETICAL WORKS. 

Acer. 'Tis time to go, tlie sun is high advanced, 
And, ere mid-day, Nero will come to Baiae. 

Agrip. My thought aches at him ; not the basilisk 
More deadly to the sight, than is to me 
(The cool injurious eye of frozen kindness.j 
I will not meet its poison. Let him feel 
Before he sees me. 

Acer. Why then stays my sovereign, 
Where he so soon may — 

Agrip. Yes, I will be gone, 
But not to Antium — all shall be confess'd. 
Whatever the frivolous tongue of giddy fame 
Has spread among the crowd ; things, that but whis- 

per'd 
Have arch'd the hearer's brow, and riveted 
His eyes in fearful ecstasy : no matter 
What ; so't be strange, and dreadful. — Sorceries, 
Assassinations, poisonings — the deeper 
My guilt, the blacker his ingratitude. 

And you, ye manes of ambition's victims, 
Enshrined Claudius, with the pitied ghosts 
Of the Syllani, doom'd to early death, 
(Ye unavailing horrors, fruitless crimes !) 
If from the realms of night my voice ye hear, 
In lieu of penitence, and vain remorse, 
Accept my vengeance. Though by me ye bled, 
He was the cause. My love, my fears for him, 



AGRIPPINA. 81 

Dried the soft springs of pity in my heart, 
And froze them up with deadly cruelty. 
Yet if your injured shades demand my fate, 
If murder cries for murder, blood for blood. 
Let me not fall alone ; but crush his pride. 
And sink the traitor in his mother's ruin. 

\_Exeunt. 

Scene II. Otho, Popp^a. 

Otho. Thus far we're safe. Thanks to the rosy 
queen 
Of amorous thefts : and had her wanton son 
Lent us his wings, we could not have beguiled 
With more elusive speed the dazzled sight 
Of wakeful jealousy. Be gay securely ; 
Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the timorous cloud 
That hangs on thy clear brow. So Helen look'd, 
So her white neck reclined, so was she borne 
By the young Trojan to his gilded bark 
With fond reluctance, yielding modesty. 
And oft reverted eye, as if she knew not 
Whether she fear'd or wish'd, to be pursued 



82 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 



HYMN TO lONORANCE. 



A FRAGMENT. 



Hail, horrors, hail ! ye ever gloomy bowers, 
Ye gothic fanes, and antiquated towers, 
Where rushy Camus' slowly- winding flood 
Perpetual draws his humid train of mud : 
Glad I revisit thy neglected reign. 
Oh take me to thy peaceful shade again. 
But chiefly thee, whose influence breathed from high 
Augments the native darkness of the sky; 
Ah, Ignorance ! soft salutary power ! 
Prostrate with filial reverence I adore. 
Thrice hath Hyperion roll'd his annual race, 
Since weeping I forsook thy fond embrace. 
Oh say, successful dost thou still oppose 
Thy leaden aegis 'gainst our ancient foes ? 
Still stretch, tenacious of thy right divine. 
The massy sceptre o'er thy slumbering line ? 
And dews Lethean through the land dispense 
To steep in slumbers each benighted sense ? 



HYMNTOiaNORANCE. 83 

If any spark of wit's delusive ray 
Break out, and flash a momentary day, 
With damp, cold touch forbid it to aspire, 
And huddle up in fogs the dangerous fire. 

Oh say — she hears me not, but, careless grown. 
Lethargic nods upon her ebon throne. 
Goddess ! awake, arise ! alas, my fears ! 
Can powers immortal feel the force of years ? 
Not thus of old, with ensigns wide unfurl'd, 
She rode triumphant o'er the vanquish'd world ; 
Eierce nations own'd her unresisted might, 
And all was ignorance, and all was night. 

Oh sacred age ! Oh times for ever lost ! 

(The schoolman's glory and the churchman's boast.) 

For ever gone — yet still to fancy new, 

Her rapid wings the transient scene pursue. 

And bring the buried ages back to view. 

High on her car, behold the grandam ride 
Like old Sesostris with barbaric pride ; 
* * * a team of harness'd monarchs bend — 

:ji :Js * * H< * 



84 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 



THE ALLIANCE OF 
EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 



A FRAGMENT. 



ESSAY I. 



-Iloray', o 'yadi' rav yap doi6av 



OvTi na eis A'i'Sav ye tov £K\y\d6ovra ^vXa^Els. 

Theocritus, Id. I.-63. 

As sickly plants betray a niggard earth, 
Whose barren bosom starves her generous birth, 
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains, 
Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins : 
And as in climes where winter holds his reign. 
The soil, though fertile, will not teem in vain. 
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise. 
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies : 
So draw mankind in vain the vital airs, 
Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares. 
That health and vigour to the soul impart. 
Spread the young thought, and warm the opening heart 
So fond instruction on the growing powers 
Of nature idly lavishes her stores. 



EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 

Ix^ equal justice with unclouded face 

Smile not indulgent on the rising race, 

And scatter, with a free though frugal hand, 

Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land : 

But tyranny has fix'd her empire there, 

To check their tender hopes with chilling fear. 

And blast the blooming promise of the year. 

This spacious animated scene survey. 
From where the rolling orb, that gives the day. 
His sable sons with nearer course surrounds 
To either pole, and life's remotest bounds, 
How rude soe'er the exterior form we find,- 
Howe'er opinion tinge the varied mind, 
Alike to all, the kind, impartial heaven 
The sparks of truth and happiness has given : 
With sense to feel, with memory to retain. 
They follow pleasure, and they fly from pain ; 
Their judgment mends the plan their fancy draws. 
The event presages, and explores the cause ; 
The soft returns of gratitude they know, 
By fraud elude, by force repel the foe ; 
While mutual wishes, mutual woes endear 
The social smile, the sympathetic tear. 

Say, then, through ages by what fate confined 
To different climes seem different souls assign 'd ? 



86 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

Here measured laws and philosophic ease 

Fix, and improve the polish'd arts of peace ; 

There industry and gain their vigils keep, 

Command the winds, and tame the unwilling deep : 

Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail ; 

There languid pleasure sighs in every gale. 

Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar 

Has Scythia breathed the living cloud of war ; 

And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway 

Their arms, their kings, their gods were roll'd away. 

As oft have issued, host impelling host. 

The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic coast. 

The prostrate south to the destroyer yields 

Her boasted titles, and her golden fields : 

With grim delight the brood of winter view 

A brighter day, and heavens of azure hue ; 

Scent the new fragrance of the breathing rose, 

And quaff the pendent vintage as it grows. 

Proud of the yoke, and pliant to the rod, 

Why yet does Asia dread a monarch's nod, 

While European freedom still withstands 

The encroaching tide that drowns her lessening lands ; 

And sees far off, with an indignant groan. 

Her native plains, and empires once her own ? 

Can opener skies and sons of fiercer flame 

O'erpower the fire that animates our frame ; 



EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 87 

As lamps, that shed at eve a cheerful ray, 

Fade and expire beneath the eye of day ? 

Need we the influence of the northern star 

To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war ? 

And, where the face of nature laughs around, 

Must sickening virtue fly the tainted ground ? 

Unmanly thought ! what seasons can control, 

What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul, 

Who, conscious of the source from whence she springs, 

By reason's light, on resolution's wings. 

Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes 

O'er Libya's deserts and through Zembla's snows ? 

She bids each slumbering energy awake. 

Another touch, another temper take. 

Suspends the inferior laws that rule our clay: 

The stubborn elements confess her sway ; 

Their little wants, their low desires, refine, 

And raise the mortal to a height divine. 

Not but the human fabric from the birth 
Imbibes a flavour of its parent earth : 
As various tracts enforce a various toil, 
The manners speak the idiom of their soil. 
An iron-race the mountain clifis maintain. 
Foes to the gentler genius of the plain : 
For where unwearied sinews must be found 
With sidelong plough to quell the flinty ground. 



88 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

To turn the torrent's swift-descending flood, 

To brave the savage rushing from the wood, 

What wonder if to patient valour train'd. 

The J guard with spirit what by strength they gain'd ? 

And while their rocky ramparts round they see. 

The rough abode of want and liberty, 

(As lawless force from confidence will grow,) 

Insult the plenty of the vales below ? 

What wonder, in the sultry climes, that spread 

Where Nile redundant o'er his summer-bed 

From his broad bosom life and verdure flings. 

And broods o'er Egypt with his watery wings. 

If with adventurous oar and ready sail 

The dusky people drive before the gale ; 

Or on frail floats to neighbouring cities ride, 

That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide 



[The following couplet, which was intended to have been 
introduced in the poem on the Alliance of Education and 
Government, is much too beautiful to be lost. — Mason.] 

When love could teach a monarch to be wise, 
And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes. 



STANZAS TO MR. BENTLEY. 89 



STANZAS TO MR. BENTLEY. 

In silent gaze the tuneful choir among, 

Half pleased, half blushing, let the Muse admire, 
While Bentley leads her sister-art along, 

And bids the pencil answer to the lyre. 

See, in their course, each transitory thought 
Eix'd by his touch a lasting essence take ; 

Each dream, in fancy's airy colouring wrought. 
To local symmetry and life awake ! 

The tardy rhymes that used to linger on. 
To censure cold, and negligent of fame. 

In swifter measures animated run. 

And catch a lustre from his genuine flame. 

Ah ! could they catch his strength, his easy grace, 
His quick creation, his unerring line ; 

The energy of Pope they might efface. 
And Dryden's harmony submit to mine. 
8* 



90 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

But not to one in this benighted age 

Is that diviner inspiration given, 
That burns in Shakspeare's or in Milton's page, 

The pomp and prodigality of heaven. 

As when conspiring in the diamond's blaze, 
The meaner gems that singly charm the sight, 

Together dart their intermingled rays. 
And dazzle with a luxury of light. 

Enough for me, if to some feeling breast 
My lines a secret sympathy ^impart;' 

And as their pleasing influence ' flows confest,' 
A sigh of soft reflection < heaves the heart.' 



SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER. 

WRITTEN IN 1761, AND FOUND IN ONE OF HIS POCKET-BOOKS. 

Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune ; 

He had not the method of making a fortune ; 

Could love, and could hate, so was thought somewhat 

odd ; 
No very great wit, he believed in a God : 



LINES. 91 



A post or a pension lie did not desire, 
But left churcli and state to Charles Townsliend and 
Squire. 



LINES. 

With beauty, with pleasure surrounded, to languish — 
To weep without knowing the cause of my anguish : 
To start from short slumbers, and wish for the morn- 
ing— 
To close my dull eyes when I see it returning ; 
Sighs sudden and frequent, looks ever dejected — 
Words that steal from my tongue, by no meaning 

connected ! 
Ah! say, fellow-swains, how these symptoms befell 

me? 
They smile, but reply not— sure Delia will tell me ! 



92 GEAY'S poetical WORKS. 



TOPHET. 

Thus Tophet look'd ; so grinn'd the brawling fiend, 
Whilst frighted prelates bow'd and call'd him friend. 
Our mother-church, with half-averted sight, 
Blush'd as she bless'd her grisly proselyte ; 
Hosannas rung through hell's tremendous borders, 
And Satan's self had thoughts of taking orders. 



THE CANDIDATE; 
OR, THE CAMBRIDGE COURTSHIP. 

When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugged up his face. 
With a lick of court white-wash, and pious grimace, 
A wooing he went, where three sisters of old, 
In harmless society guttle and scold. 

"Lord ! sister," says Physic to Law, <'I declare, 
Such a sheep-biting look, such a pick -pocket air ! 
Not I for the Indies : — You know I'm no prude, — 
But his nose is a shame, — and his eyes are so lewd ! 
Then he shambles and straddles so oddly — I fear — 
No — at our time of life 'twould be silly, my dear." 



THE CANDIDATE„ 93 

'«I don't know," says Law, "but methinks for his 
look, 
'Tis just like the picture in Rochester's book 5 
Then his character, Phjzzy, — his morals — his life — 
When she died, I can't tell, but he once had a wife. 

They say he's no Christian, loves drinking and w g, 

And all the town rings with his swearing and roaring ! 
His lying and filching, and Newgate-bird tricks ; — 
Not I — for a coronet, chariot and six." 

Divinity heard, between waking and dozing, 
Her sisters denying, and Jemmy proposing : 
From table she rose, and with bumper in hand, 
She stroked up her belly, and stroked down her band — 
" What a pother is here about wenching and roaring ! 

Why, David loved catches, and Solomon w g : 

Did not Israel filch from the Egyptians of old 
Their jewels of silver and jewels of gold ? 
The prophet of Bethel, we read, told a lie : 
He drinks — so did Noah ; — he swears — so do I : 
To reject him for such peccadillos, were odd ; 
Besides, he repents — for he talks about G** — 

[_To Jemmy.] 
" Never hang down your head, you poor penitent elf. 
Come buss me — I'll be Mrs. Twitcher myself." 



94 gray's poetical WORKS. 



IMPROMPTU, 

SUGGESTED BY A VIEW, IN 1766, OF THE SEAT AND RUINS OF A 
DECEASED NOBLEMAN, AT KING SG ATE, KENT. 

Old, and abandon'd by each venal friend, 
Here H d form'd the pious resolution 

To smuggle a few years, and strive to mend 
A broken character and constitution. 

On this congenial spot he fix'd his choice ; 

Earl Goodwin trembled for his neighbouring sand ; 
Here sea-gulls scream, and cormorants rejoice, 

And mariners, though shipwreck 'd, dread to land. 

Here reign the blustering North and blighting East, 
No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing ; 

Yet Nature could not furnish out the feast. 
Art he invokes new horrors still to bring. 

Here mouldering fanes and battlements arise, 
Turrets and arches nodding to their fall, 

Unpeopled monasteries delude our eyes. 
And mimic desolation covers all. 

<•<■ Ah !" said the sighing peer, '' had B — te been true, 
Nor M — 's, R — 's, B — 's friendship vain. 

Ear better scene's than these had blest our view, 
And realized the beauties which we feign : 



IMPROMPTU. 95 



" Purged by the sword, and purified by fire, 

Then had we seen proud London's hated walls ; 

Owls would have hooted in St. Peter's choir, 
And foxes stunk and litter'd in St. Paul's." 



IMPROMPTU, 

WHILE WALKING WITH MR. NICHOLLS IN THE SPRING IN THE 
NEIGHBOURHOOD OP CAMBRIDGE. 

There pipes the woodlark, and the song-thrush there 
Scatters his loose notes in the waste of air. 



PART OF AN EPITAPH ON THE WIFE OF 

MASON. 

Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die, 
'Twas e'en to thee ; yet the dread path once trod. 
Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high, 
And bids the pure in heart behold their God. 



96 GRAY^S POETICAL WORKS. 



EXTEMPORE EPITAPH ON ANNE, COUN- 
TESS OF DORSET. 

Now clean, now Hdeous, mellow now, now gruiF, 
She swept, she hiss'd, she ripen'd, and grew rough, 
At Brougham, Pendragon, Applebj, and Brough. 



THE CHARACTERS OF THE CHRIST- 
CROSS ROW. 

BY A CRITIC, TO MRS. . 



Great J) draws near — the dutchess sure is come, 
Open the doors of the withdrawing-room ; 
Her daughters deck'd most daintily I see, 
The dowager grows a perfect double D. 
E enters next, and with her Eve appears. 
Not like yon dowager deprest with years ; 
What ease and elegance her person grace. 
Bright beaming, as the evening-star, her face ; 



CHRIST-CROSS ROW. 97 

Queen Esther next— how fair e'en after death, 
Then one faint glimpse of Queen Elizabeth ; 
^N'o more, our Esthers now are nought but Hetties, 
Elizabeths all dwindled into Betties ; 
In vain you think to find them under E, 
They're all diverted into H and B. 
E follows fast the fair — and in his rear, 
See folly, fashion, foppery, straight appear. 
Air with fantastic clews, fantastic clothes. 
With fans and flounces, fringe and furbelows. 
Here Grub-street geese presume to joke and jeer. 
All, all, but Grannam Osborne's Gazetteer. 
High heaves his hugeness H ; methinks we see 
Henry the Eighth's most monstrous majesty ; 
But why on such moch grandeur should We dwell ? 
H mounts to heaven, and H descends to hell. 
* * * * 

As H the Hebrew found, so I the Jew, 
See Isaac, Joseph, Jacob, pass in view ; 
The walls of old Jerusalem appear, 
See Israel, and all Judah thronging there. 

* * 5(C ^ 5,. 

P pokes his head out, yet has not a pain ; 
Like Punch, he peeps, but soon pops in again ; 
Pleased with his pranks, the Pisgys call him Puck, 
Mortals he loves to prick, and pinch, and pluck ; 



98 GEAY^S POETICAL WORKS. 

Now a pert prig, he perks upon your face, 

Now peers, pores, ponders, with profound grimace, 

Now a proud prince, in pompous purple drest, 

And now a player, a peer, a pimp, or priest ; 

A pea, a pin, in a perpetual round, 

Now seems a penny, and now shows a pound ; 

Like perch or pike, in pond you see him come, 

He in plantations hangs like pear or plum. 

Pippin or peach ; then perches on the spray. 

In form of parrot, pye, or popinjay. 

P, Proteus-like, all tricks, all shapes can show, 

The pleasantest person in the Christ-Cross row. 

:}t * ^ ^ ^ 

As K a king, Q represents a queen. 

And seems small difference the sounds between ; 

K, as a man, with hoarser accents speaks. 

In shriller notes Q like a female squeaks ; 

Behold K struts, as might a king become, 

Q draws her train along the drawing room. 

Slow follow all the quality of state. 

Queer Queensbury only does refuse to wait. 

Thus great H reigns in town, while different far, 
Rests in retirement little rural R ; 
Remote from cities lives in lone retreat. 
With rooks and ra,bbit burrows round his seat — 



CHRIST-CROSS ROW. 99 

S sails the swan slow down the silver stream. 
* * * * 

So big with weddings, waddles W, 
And brings all womankind before your view ; 
A wench, a wife, a widow, and a w — e, 
With woe behind and wantonness before. 



100 GRAYS POETICAL WORKS. 



EXTRACTS. 



PROPERTIUS, 



LIB. III. EL EG. V. V. 19. 



" Me juvat in prim^ coluisse Helicona juventS.," &c. 



IMITATED. 



Long as of youth the joyous hours remain, 

Me may Castalia's sweet recess detain, 

Fast by the umbrageous vale lull'd to repose, 

Where Aganippe warbles as it flows ; 

Or roused by sprightly sounds from out the trance, 

I'd in the ring knit hands, and join the Muses' dance. 

Give me to send the laughing bowl around. 

My soul in Bacchus' pleasing fetters bound ; 

Let on this head unfading flowers reside. 

There bloom the vernal rose's earliest pride ; 

And when, our flames commission'd to destroy, 

Age step 'twixt Love and me, and intercept the joy ; 



PROPERTIUS. 101 

When my changed head these locks no more shall know, 

And all its jetty honours turn to snow ; 

Then let me rightly spell of Nature's ways ; 

To Providence, to Him my thoughts I'd raise, 

Who taught this vast machine its steadfast laws, 

That first, eternal, universal cause ; 

Search to what regions yonder star retires. 

That monthly waning hides her paly fires, 

And whence, anew revived, with silver light 

Relumes her crescent orb to cheer the dreary night : 

How rising winds the face of ocean sweep. 

Where lie the eternal fountains of the deep, 

And whence the cloudy magazines maintain 

Their wintry war, or pour the autumnal rain ; 

How flames perhaps, with dire confusion hurl'd. 

Shall sink this beauteous fabric of the world ; 

What colours paint the vivid arch of Jove ; 

What wondrous force the solid earth can move. 

When Pindus' self approaching ruin dreads. 

Shakes all his pines, and bows his hundred heads ; 

Why does yon orb, so exquisitely bright, 

Obscure his radiance in a short-lived night ; 

Whence the Seven-Sisters' congregated fires, 

And what Bootes' lazy wagon tires ; 

How the rude surge its sandy bounds control ; 

Who measured out the year, and bade the seasons 

roll; 
9« 



102 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

If realms beneath those fabled torments know, 
Pangs without respite, fires that ever glow, 
Earth's monster brood stretch'd on their iron bed, 
The hissing terrors round Alecto's head, 
Scarce to nine acres Titjus' bulk confined, 
The triple dog that scares the shadowy kind, 
All angry heaven inflicts, or hell can feel. 
The pendent rock, Ixion's whirling wheel, 
Famine at feasts, or thirst amid the stream ; 
Or are our fears the enthusiast's empty dream, 
And all the scenes, that hurt the grave's repose, 
But pictured horror and poetic woes. 

These soft inglorious joys my hours engage ; 
Be love my youth's pursuit, and science crown my age. 

1738. ^t. 22. 



PROPEETIUS, 



LIB. II. ELEG. I. V. 17. 



" Quod mihi si tantum, Maecenas, fata dedissent/^ &c. 

Yet would the tyrant love permit me raise 
My feeble voice, to sound the victor's praise, 



PROPERTIUS. 103 

To paint the hero's toil, the ranks of war, 

The laurell'd triumph and the sculptured car ; 

No giant race, no tumult of the skies, 

No mountain-structures in mj verse should rise. 

Nor tale of Thebes, nor Ilium there should be. 

Nor how the Persian trod the indignant sea ; 

Not Marius' Cimbrian wreaths would I relate, 

Nor lofty Carthage struggling with her fate. 

Here should Augustus great in arms appear. 

And thou, Maecenas, be my second care ; 

Here Mutina from flames and famine free, 

And there the ensanguined wave of Sicily, 

And sceptred Alexandria's captive shore. 

And sad Philippi, red with Roman gore : 

Then, while the vaulted skies loud ios rend, 

In golden chains should loaded monarchs bend, 

And hoary Nile with pensive aspect seem 

To mourn the glories of his sevenfold stream, 

While prows, that late in fierce encounter met. 

Move through the sacred way and vainly threat, 

Thee too the Muse should consecrate to fame. 

And with her garlands weave thy ever-faithful name. 

But nor Callimachus' enervate strain 
May tell of Jove, and Phlegra's blasted plain ; 
Nor I with unaccustom'd vigour tracfe 
Back to its source divine the Julian race. 



104 GRAY S POETICAL WORKS. 

Sailors to tell of winds and seas delight, 

The shepherd of his flocks, the soldier of the fight ; 

A milder warfare I in verse display ; 

Each in his proper art should waste the day : 

Nor thou my gentle calling disapprove, 

To die is glorious in the bed of Love. 

Happy the youth, and not unknown to fame, 
Whose heart has never felt a second flame. 
Oh, might that envied happiness be mine ! 
To Cynthia all my wishes I confine ; 
Or if, alas ! it be my fate to try 
Another love, the quicker let me die : 
But she, the mistress of my faithful breast, 
Has oft the charms of constancy confest. 
Condemns her fickle sex's fond mistake. 
And hates the tale of Troy for Helen's sake 
Me from myself the soft enchantress stole ; 
Ah ! let her ever my desires control. 
Or if I fall the victim of her scorn. 
From her loved door may my pale corse be borne. 
The power of herbs can other harms remove. 
And find a cure for every ill but love. 
The Lemnian's hurt Machaon could repair. 
Heal the slow chief, and send again to war ; 
To Chiron Phoenix owed his long-lost sight, 
And Phoebus' son recall'd Androgeon to the light. 



PROPERTIUS. 105 

Here arts are vain, e'en magic here must fail, 
The powerful mixture and the midnight spell ; 
The hand that can my captive heart release, 
And to this bosom give its wonted peace. 
May the long thirst of Tantalus allay. 
Or drive the infernal vulture from his prey. 
For ills unseen what remedy is found ? 
Or who can probe the undiscover'd wound ? 
The bed avails not, nor the leech's care, 
Nor changing skies can hurt, nor sultry air. 
'Tis hard the elusive symptoms to explore : 
To-day the lover w^alks, to-morrow is no more ; 
A train of mourning friends attend his pall, 
And wonder at the sudden funeral. 

When then the fates that breath they gave shall 

claim, 

And the short marble but preserve a name, 

A little verse my all that shall remain ; 

Thy passing courser's slacken'd speed restrain ; 

(Thou envied honour of thy poet's days. 

Of all our youth the ambition and the praise !) 

Then to my quiet urn awhile draw near. 

And say, while o'er that place you drop the tear. 

Love and the fair were of his youth the pride ; 

He lived, while she was kind ; and when she frown'd, 

he died. 

April, 1742. ^t. 26. 



106 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 



TASSO GERUS. LIB. 

CANT. XIV. ST. 32. 

"Preser commiato, e si '1 desio gli sprona," &c. 

Dismiss'd at length, they break through all delay 
To tempt the dangers of the doubtful way ; 
And first to Ascalon their steps they bend, 
Whose walls along the neighbouring sea extend, 
Nor yet in prospect rose the distant shore ; 
Scarce the hoarse waves from far were heard to roar, 
When thwart the road a river roll'd its flood 
Tempestuous, and all further course withstood ; 
The torrent stream his ancient bounds disdains. 
Swollen with new force, and late-descending rains. 
Irresolute they stand ; when lo, appears 
The wondrous Sage : vigorous he seem'd in years. 
Awful his mien, low as his feet there flows 
A vestment unadorn'd, though white as new-fall'n 

snows ; 
Against the stream the waves secure he trod, 
His head a chaplet bore, his hand a rod. 



TASSO GERUS. LIB. 107 

As on tlie Rhine, wlien Boreas' fury reigns, 
And winter binds the floods in icy chains. 
Swift shoots the village-maid in rustic play 
Smooth, without step, adown the shining way. 
Fearless in long excursion loves to glide. 
And sports and wantons o'er the frozen tide. 

So moved the Seer, but on no harden'd plain ; 
The river boil'd beneath, and rush'd toward the main. 
Where fix'd in wonder stood the warlike pair. 
His course he turn'd, and thus relieved their care : 

"Vast, oh my friends, and difficult the toil 
To seek your hero in a distant soil ! 
No common helps, no common guide ye need. 
Art it requires, and more than winged speed. 
What length of sea remains, what various lands. 
Oceans unknown, inhospitable sands ! 
For adverse fate the captive chief has hurl'd 
Beyond the confines of our narrow world : 
Great things and full of wonder in your ears 
I shall unfold ; but first dismiss your fears ; 
Nor doubt with me to tread the downward road 
That to the grotto leads, my dark abode." 

Scarce had he said, before the warriors' eyes 
When mountain-high the waves disparted rise ; 



108 GRAY'S POETICAL WORKS. 

The flood on either liancl its billows rears. 



And in the midst a spacious arch appears. 
Their hands he seized, and down the steep he led 
Beneath the obedient river's inmost bed ; 
The watery glimmerings of a fainter day 
Discover'd half, and half conceal'd their way ; 
As when athwart the dusky woods by night 
The uncertain crescent gleams a sickly light. 
Through subterraneous passages they went, 
Earth's inmost cells, and caves of deep descent ; 
Of many a flood they view'd the secret source, 
The birth of rivers rising to their course, 
Whate'er with copious train its channel fills, 
Floats into lakes, and bubbles into rills ; 
The Po was there to see, Danubius' bed, 
Euphrates' fount, and Nile's mysterious head. 
Further they pass, where ripening minerals flow, 
And embryon metals undigested glow. 
Sulphureous veins and living silver shine^ 
Which soon the parent sun's warm powers refine. 
In one rich mass unite the precious store, 
The parts combine and harden into ore : 
Here gems break through the night with glittering beam, 
And paint the margin of the costly stream. 
All stones of lustre shoot their vivid ray, " 
And mix attemper'd in a various day ; 



TASSO GBRUS. LIB. 109 

Here the soft emerald smiles of verdant hue, 
And rubies flame, with sapphire's heavenly blue, 
The diamond there attracts the wondrous sight, 
Proud of its thousand dyes and luxury of light. 

1738. ^t, 22. 



10 



110 gray's poetical woeks. 



DIDACTIC POEM UNFINISHED : 



ENTITLED, 



DE PPvINCIPIIS COGITANDI. 

LIBER PRIMUS. AD FAVONIUM. 

Unde Animus scire incipiat ; quibus inchoet orsa 
Principiis seriem rerum, tenuemque catenam 
Mnemosyne : Ratio unde rudi sub pectore tardum 
Augeat imperium ; et primum mortalibus segris 
Ira, Dolor, Metus, et Curse nasca.ntur inanes, 
Hinc canere aggredior. Nee dedignare canentem, 
decus ! Angliacce certe lux altera gentis ! 
Si qua primus iter monstras, vestigia conor 
Signare incerta, tremulaque insistere plants. 
Quin potius due ipse (potes namque omnia) sanctum 
Ad limen (si rite adeo, si pectore puro,) 
Obscurae reserans Naturae ingentia claustra. 
Tu cix^cas rerum causas, fontemque severum 
Pande, Pater ; tibi enim, tibi, veri magne Sacerdos, 
Corda patent hominum, atque altae penetralia Mentis. 

Tuque aures adhibe vacuas, facilesque, Favoni, 
(Quod tibi crescit opus) simplex nee despice carmen, 



DB PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI. IH 

Nec vatem : non ilia leves primorclia motus, 
Quanquam parva, dabunt. Lsetmn vel amabile quicquid 
Usquam oritur, trahifc liinc ortum ; nee surgit ad auras, 
Quin ea conspirent simul, eventusque seeundent. 
Hinc varige vitai artes, ac mollior usus, 
Dulce et amieitiae vinclum : Sapientia dia 
Hinc roseum aecendit lumen, vultuque sereno 
Humanas aperit mentes, nova gaudia monstrans 
Deformesque fugat curas, vanosque timores : 
Scilicet et rerum crescit pulcherrima Virtus. 
Ilia etiam, quse te (mirum) noctesque diesque 
Assidue fovet inspirans, linguamque sequentem 
Temperat in numeros, atque horas mulcet inertes ; 
Aurea non alia- se jactat origine Musa. 

Principio, ut magnum foedus Natura creatrix 
FIrmavic, tardis jussitque inolescere membris 
Sublimes animas ; tenebroso in car cere partem 
Noluit aetheream longo torpere veterno : 
Nee per se proprium passa exercere vigorem est, 
Ne socise molis conjunctos sperneret artus, 
Ponderis oblita, et coelestis conscia flammse. 
Idcirco innumero ductu tremere undique fibras 
Nervorum instituit : tum toto corpore miscens 
Implicuit late ramos, et sensile textum, 
Implevitque humore suo (seu lymplia vocanda, 
Sive aura est) tenuis certe, atque levissima qusedam 



112 GRAYS POETICAL WOEKS. 

Vis versatur agensj parvosque infusa canales 
Perfluit ; assidue externis quae concita plagis, 
Mobilis, incussique fidelis nuntia motus, 
Hinc inde accens^ contage relabitur usque 
Ad superas hominis sedes, arcemque cerebri. 
Namque illic posuit solium, et sua templa sacravit 
Mens animi : hanc circum coeunt, densoque feruntuT 
Agmine notitige, simulacraque tenuia rerum ; 
Ecce autem naturae ingens aperitur imago 
Immensae, variique patent commercia mundi. 

Ac uti longinquis descendunt montibus amnes 
Yelivolus TamisiSj flaventisque Indus arenae, 
Euphratesque, Tagusque, et opimo flumine Ganges, 
Undas quisque sUaS volvens, cursuque sonoro 
In mare prorumpunt •: hos magno acclinis in antro 
Excipit Oceanus, natorumque ordine longo 
Dona recognoscit venientum, ultroque serenat 
Caeruleam faciem, et diffuso marmore ridet. 
Haud aliter species properant se inferre novelise 
Certatim menti, atque aditus quino agmine complent. 

Primas tactus agit partes, primusque minutae 
Laxat iter caecum turbae, recipitque ruentem. 
Non idem buic modus est, qui fratribus : amplius ille 
Imperium affectat senior, penitusque medullis, 
Visceribusque babitat totis, pellisque recentem 
Funditur in telam, et late per stamina vivit. 



DE PRINCIPIIS COaiTANDI. 113 

Necdum etiam matris puer eluctatus ab alvo 
Multiplices solvit tunicas, et vincula rupit ; 
Sopitus molli somno, tepidoque liquore 
Circumfusus adhuc : tactus tamen aura lacessit 
Jamdudum levior sensus, animamque reclusit. 
[dque magis simul, ac solitum blandumque calorem 
iJ'rigore mutavit coeli, quod verberat acri 
Impete inassuetos artus : turn seevior adstat 
HumaniTeque comes vitae Dolor excipit ; ille 
Cunctautem frustra et tremulo multa ore querentem 
Corripit invadens, ferreisque amplectitur ulnis. 
Turn species primum patefacta est Candida Lucis 
(Usque vices adeo ISTatura bonique, malique, 
Exsequat, just^que manu sua damna rependit) 
Turn primiim, ignotosque bibunt nova lumina soles. 

Carmine quo, Dea, te dicam, gratissima coeli 
Progenies, ortumque tuum ; gemmantia rore 
Ut per prata levi lustras, et floribus lialans 
Purpureum Yeris gremium, scenamque virentem 
Pingis, et umbriferos colles, et cserula regna ? 
Gratia te, Yenerisque Lepos, et mille Colorum, 
Formarumque chorus sequitur, motusque decentes. 
At caput invisum Stygiis Nox atra tenebris 
Abdidit, liorrendteque simul Formidinis ora, 
Pervigilesque sestus Curarum, atque anxius Angor : 
Undique l^etiti^ florent mortalia corda, 
Purus et arridet largis fulgoribus ^tlier. 
10* 



lU GRAYS POETICAL WORKS. 

Omnia nee tu icleo invalidae se pandere Menti 
(Quippe nimis teneros posset vis tanta diei 
Perturbare, et inexpertos confundere visus) 
Nee capere infantes animos, neu cernere credas 
Tarn variam molem, et mirae spectacula lucis : 
Nescio qua tamen hsec oculos dulcedine parvos 
Splendida percnssit novitas, traxitque sequentes; 
Nonne videmus enim, latis inserta fenestris 
Sicubi se Phoebi dispergant aurea tela, 
Sive lucernarum rutilus colluxerit ardor, 
Extemplo hiic obverti aciem, quae fixa repertos 
Haurit inexpletum radios, fruiturque tuendo. 

Altior liuic vero sensu, rnajorque videtur 
Addita, Judicioque arete connexa potestas, 
Quod simul atque setas volventibus auxerit annis, 
HaBC simul, assiduo depascens omnia visu, 
Perspiciet, vis quanta loci, quid polleat ordo, 
Juncturse quis honos, ut res accendere rebus 
Lumina conjurant inter se, et mutua fulgent. 

Nee minor in geminis viget auribus insita virtus, 
Nee tantum in curvis quae pervigil excubet antris 
Hinc atque hinc (ubi Vox tremefecerit ostia pulsu 
Aeriis invecta rotis) longeque recurset : 
Scilicet Eloquio hsec sonitus, hsec fulminis alas, 
Et mulcere dedit dictis et tollere corda, 
Verbaque metiri numeris, versuqne ligare 



DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI. 115 

Repperit, et quicquid discant Libethrides undse, 
Calliope quoties, quoting Pater ipse canendi 
Evolvat liquidum carmen, calamove loquenti 
Inspiret dulces animas, digitisque figuret. 

At medias fauces, et linguae liumentia templa 
Gustus habet, qua se insinuet jucunda saporum 
Luxuries, dona Autumni Bacchique voluptas. 

Paribus interea consedit odora hominum vis, 
Docta leves captare auras, Pancha'ia quales 
Vere novo exlialat, Plorseve quod oscula fragrant, 
Roscida, cum Zephyri furtim sub vesperis lior^ 
Respondet votis, mollemque aspirat amorem. 

Tot portas altas capitis circumdedit arci 
Alma Parens, sensusque vias per membra reclusit; 
Haud solas: namque intus agit vivata facultas, 
Qu^ sese explorat, contemplatusque repente 
Ipse suas animus vires, momentaque cernit. 
Quid velit, aut possit, cupiat, fugiatve, vicissim 
Percipit imperio gaudens ; neque corpora fallunt 
Morigera ad celeres actus, ac numina mentis. 

Qualis Hamadryadum quondam si fort^ sororum 
Una, novos peragrans saltus, et devia rura; 
(Atque illam in viridi suadet procumbere rip^ 
Fontis pura quies, et opaci frigoris umbra) 
Dum prona in latices speculi de margine pendet, 



no GRAYS POETICAL WORKS. 

Mlrata est subitam venienti occurrere Nympham: 
Mox eosdem, quos ipsa, artus, eadem ora gerentem 
Una inferre gradus, und succedere sylvse 
Aspicit alludens; seseque agnoscit in undis. 
Sic sensu interne rerum simulacra suarum 
Mens ciet, et proprios observat conscia vultus. 
Nee vero simplex ratio, aut jus omnibus unum 
Constat imaginibus. Sunt quge bina ostia norunt ; 
Has privos servant aditus; sine legibus illse 
Passim, qua data porta, ruunt, animoque propinquant. 
Respice, cui a cunis tristes extinxit ocellos, 
Sysva et in eternas mersit natura tenebras : 
Illi ignota dies lucet, vernusque colorum 
Offusus nitor est, et vivse gratia formse. 
Corporis at filum, et motus, spatiumque, locique 
Intervalla datur certo dignoscere tactu : 
Quandoquidem his iter ambiguum est, et janua du- 
plex, 
Exclusseque oculis species irrumpere tendunt 
Per digitos. Atqui solis concessa potestas 
Luminibus blandae est radios immittere lucis. 

Undique proporro sociis, quacunque patescit 
Notitige campus, mistse lasciva feruntur 
Turba voluptatis comites, formaeque dolorum 
Terribiles visu, et portd glomerantur in omni. 
Nee vario minus introitu magnum ingruit Illud, 
Quo facer e et fungi, quo res existere circum 



DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI. 117 

Quamque sibi proprio cum corpore scbius, et ire 
Ordine, perpetuoque per sevum flumine labi. 

Nunc age quo valeat pacto, qua sensilis arte 
Affectare viam, atque animi tentare latebras 
Materies (dictis aures adverte faventes) 
Exsequar. Imprimis spatii quam multa per sequor 
Millia multigenis pandant se corpora seclis, 
Expende. Haud unum invenies, quod mente licebit 
Amplecti, nedum propriiis deprendere sensu, 
Molis egens certse, aut solido sine robore, cujus 
Denique mobilitas linquit, texturave partes, 
Ulla nee orarum circumc^sura coercet. 
H^c conjuncta adeo tot^ compage fatetur 
Mundus, et extremo clamant in limine rerum, 
(Si rebus datur extremum) primordia. Firmat 
Hsec eadem tactus (tactum quis dicere falsum 
Audeat ?) lisec oculi nee lucidus arguit orbis. 

Inde potestatum enasci densissima proles ; 
Nam quodcunque ferit visum, tangive laborat, 
Quicquid nare bibis, vel concava concipit auris, 
Quicquid lingua sapit, credas hoc omne, necesse est 
Ponderibus, textu, discursu, mole, figura 
Particulas pr^estare leves, et semina rerum. 
Nunc oculos igitur pascunt, et luce ministra 
Fulgere cuncta vides, spargique coloribus orbem, 
Dum de sole trahunt alias, aliasque supern^ 



118 GRAYS POETICAL WORKS. 

Detorquent, retrdque docent se vertere flammas. 
Nunc trepido inter se fervent corpuscula pulsu, 
Ut tremor aethera per magnum, lateque natantes 
Aurarum fluctus avidi vibrantia claustra 
AudituS queat allabi, sonitumque propaget. 
Cominus interdum non ullo interprete per se 
Nervorum invadunt teneras quatientia fibras, 
Sensiferumque urgent ultro per viscera motum. 
* * * * 

LIBER QUARTUS. 

Hactenus baud segnis Naturae arcana retexi 
Musarum interpres, primusque Britanna per arva 
Romano liquidum deduxi flumine rivum. 
Cum Tu opere in medio, spes tanti et causa laboris, 
Linquis, et geternam fati te condis in umbram ! 
Vidi egomet duro graviter concussa dolore 
Pectora, in alterius non unquam lenta dolorem ; 
Et languere oculos vidi, et pallescere amantem 
Yultum, quo nunquam Pietas nisi rara, Fidesque, 
Altus amor Veri, et purum spirabat Honestum. 
Visa tamen tardi demiim inclementia morbi 
Cessare est, reducemque iterum roseo ore Salutem 
Speravi, atque unl, tecum, dilecte Favoni ! 
(Jredulus heu longos, ut quondam, fallere Soles : 
lieu spes nequicquam dulces, atque irrita vota ! 



DEPRINCIPIISCOGITANDI. 119 

Heu msestos Soles, sine te quos ducere flendo 
Per desideria, et questus jam cogor inanes ! 

At Tu, sancta anima, et nostri non indiga luctus, 
Stellanti templo, sincerique setheris igne, 
Unde orta es, fruere ; atque 6 si secura, nee ultra 
Mortalis, notes olim miserata labores 
Respectes, tenuesqne vacet cognoscere curas ; 
Humanum si forte alta de sede procellam 
Contemplere, metus, stimulosque cupidinis acres, 
Gaudiaque et gemitus, parvoque in corde tumultum 
Irarum ingentem, et ssevos sub pectore fluctus ; 
Respice et has lacrymas, memori quas ictus amore 
I'undo ; quod possum, juxt^ lugere sepulclirum 
Duni juvat, et mutse vana hsec jactare favillae. 

* 5tc * * * 



120 gray's poetical works. 



A FAREWELL TO FLORENCE. 

* * * Oh Fsesulse amoena 
Frigoribus juga, nee nimium spirantibus auris ! 
Alma quibus Tusci Pallas decus Ap^nnini 
Esse dedit, glauca>que suai canescere sjlva ! 
Non ego vos posthac Arni de valle videbo 
Porticibus circum, et candonti cincta corona 
Villarum long^ nitido consurgere dorso, 
Antiquamve ^dem, et veteres prseferre Cupressus 
Mirabor, tectisque super pendentia tecta. 



THE END. 



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